Iroquois Creation Story

“Iroquois Creation Story”

The Iroquois creation story starts out talking about two worlds, but it only goes into depth with the lower world. The lower world could be hell an equivalent of hell. Then the article talks about a woman, maybe a goddess (who reminds me of the Japanese sun goddess Amateratsu), descending to the lower world. So maybe the lower world is the earth. But there are monsters in the lower world that could either be animals or demons.

The woman gives birth to twins, a good twin and a bad twin. The good twin brings light to the lower world by turning the head of his mother, who died while giving birth, into the sun and her body into the moon. This is similar to Christianity, when God creates the sun on the first day. The good twin also makes “spots of light” which according to the article dictate the seasons years etc. This maybe a reference to how some Native American cultures used astronomy or astrology to predict weather patterns and growing seasons for crops.

“The good mind continued works of creation…” the article continues. The good mind made animals, land forms, and created man and woman in the image of himself, like Adam and Eve. The good mind made the lower world into a world of life light and fruitfulness very similar to the Garden of Eden.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the bad twin creates things that would be unhealthy for mankind like reptiles and snakes. Snakes stand out because the snake that was in the Garden of Eden was Satan which, the bad twin obviously represents. Everything the bad twin attempted to create seemed to be a failure when compared to what the good twin made. So it seems everything he does is meant to counter what the good twin does. He tries to take all of the animals away from the humans but, the good twin is obviously more powerful that the bad twin so, he just brings them back.

All of this conflict eventually leads up to a final confrontation between both twins, in which they both know each other’s weakness. The fighting ends with the good twin beating the bad twin into the ground. He sinks into the earth and becomes the evil spirit. This event seems symbolic of Satan’s fall from heaven.

The good twin is basically God. But what is interesting is that the god of the earth actually came from a woman, which must come from the Native American culture, which is primarily matriarchal. This shows that females are higher up than the male god, even though the god is what brought life and light. Even though this creation story is similar to the Christian creation story, as many other foreign creation stories are, this one still has one big marker that defines it as Native American.

This creation story, according to the author, is actually history even though it seems like complete myth. The author is an Iroquois himself so he would have heard this story from his elders who pasted it through the generations. It would be the history of the Iroquois as they see it.